Every time I sing that song, I think of two people. First of all, Frida Allen, his sister, who wrote many hymns. This was a poem she wrote, actually, for Jesse Penn-Lewis’s birthday.
Jesse Penn-Lewis was a little sister from England, not five feet tall, who did spiritual battle and was involved in bringing revival to many people there in England. Our dear sister Frida wrote this poem, which was never made into a song until our dear brother Christian Chen brought it to us when we were putting together that hymnbook at Westminster. Christian said, “You know, this is a poem. It needs to be a song.” So anyway, I ended up putting the music to it.
But it is just the words:
Chosen vessel, empty, weak, and small,
Bearing heaven’s precious treasure.
And there was that little Jesse Penn-Lewis, about this tall, so full of the power of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful testimony of how the Lord does not need something big, something ferocious, something loud, something like me. He can do His work with any vessel that will come to Him.
I would like for us to read that wonderful portion in 1 Chronicles 29: David’s last consecration. At the very end of his life, he brings everything before the Lord. It is so wonderful. Somehow, I feel it is apropos for us to look at these verses.
Then King David said to the entire assembly,
“My son Solomon, whom alone God hath chosen, is still young and inexperienced, and the work is great; for the temple is not for man, but for the Lord God.“Now with all my ability I have provided for the house of my God: gold for the things of gold, silver for the things of silver, bronze for the things of bronze, iron for the things of iron, wood for the things of wood, onyx stones and inlaid stones, stones of antimony and stones of various colors, all kinds of precious stones, and alabaster in abundance.”
“Moreover, in my delight in the house of my God, the treasure I have of gold and silver I give to the house of my God, over and above all that I have already provided for the holy temple: namely, three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the buildings; of gold for the things of gold, and of silver for the things of silver, for all the work done by the craftsmen. Who then is willing to consecrate himself this day unto the Lord?”
Then the rulers of the fathers’ households, the princes of the tribes of Israel, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with the overseers over the king’s work, offered willingly. For the service of the house of God they gave five thousand talents and ten thousand darics of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. Whoever possessed precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord, in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite.
Then the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly, for they had made their offering to the Lord with a whole heart; and King David also rejoiced greatly.
So David blessed the Lord in the sight of all the assembly; and David said,
“Blessed art Thou, O Lord God of Israel our Father, forever and ever.“Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty; indeed, everything that is in the heavens and on the earth is Thine. Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all.”
“Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all; and in Thy hand is power and might, and it lies in Thy hand to make great and to strengthen everyone. Now therefore, O our God, we thank Thee and praise Thy glorious name.
“But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to offer so generously as this? For all things come from Thee, and from Thy hand we have given Thee. For we are sojourners before Thee, and tenants, as all our fathers were; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.”
“O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided to build Thee a house for Thy holy name, it is from Thy hand, and all is Thine. Since I know, my God, that Thou dost try the heart and delight in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Thy people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to Thee.”
Our Father, we thank You that we can come to a God so magnanimous, so great and glorious, so full of riches and treasures. The fact that You would even allow us to steward these treasures of Christ—what an amazing, unworthy thing.
But so You have done, and so we gather for these days. O Lord, may it be that all of us might, in a most wonderful way, so willingly give ourselves to You that You would be satisfied with this offering of the heart.
So we come to You tonight. We thank You, Lord, for a gathering of such precious brothers, and we pray that You will continue to speak to us as we go through these days. In Jesus’ precious name, amen.
Of course, I think we realize, but perhaps when these things happen we are not so aware of, what a unique opportunity this is to be together. Some of you I have known for more than forty years. Some of you I have known since you were a child.
We are together here with brothers who have sacrificed for the sake of the Lord. We have workers here who have fought hard, served hard, preached the gospel, and moved from place to place. We have brothers here who have been responsible at the cost of promotion in their jobs and time away from family.
You know, the Lord loves every sacrifice given from a full heart. I hope that your service is out of devotion and love for the Lord.
I am an outsider in a certain way, just because of how I was trained up. Well, I was saved in a Baptist church, and that was a good start, because I was truly saved. They sent me off to seminary, and the next thing I knew, I was a Baptist pastor. I learned all the ways of being a Baptist shepherd. There is some good and some bad there.
But I was an outsider. During that whole time—the ten years I was in that kind of realm—I was a pastor, serving and preaching the gospel, and I was so alone. As I served, I felt so uncomfortable in the places, the positions, and the things I had to do. I was called on as pastor not just to be a pastor, but an apostle, evangelist, prophet, teacher—you know, everything. And I am not everything.
So I was straining all alone. I wish I had had fellowship like this. The wisdom we heard even this afternoon—I never heard it in four years of seminary. These are things learned by the Lord Jesus and by bearing the cross: a wisdom gained through mistakes and experiences. These are the precious things. These are the things I wish my professors had told me, but no, I had to go my own way.
During those ten years, I only had two friends who really helped me. One was my old brother Ernie Hiles. He and I would get together a lot and pray. He said, “You know, this thing stinks. There’s something wrong. I don’t know what it is.” That is why we started reading.
My second friend was Watchman Nee. I read every book that came out. It was beautiful. Every time I touched those things, you know—here I was, only about three years old as a Christian and just about to head off to seminary.
This guy came up to me with a trench coat on. He was a smuggler—a Baptist smuggler. He came up to me in this Baptist church, pulled a book out of his jacket, and said, “Here, here, hide it.” Well, it was The Normal Christian Church Life. My heart literally flew when I read such a clear exposition of the Scriptures.
But between my brother Watchman Nee and my brother Ernie Hiles, that is all I had until I ended up in Raleigh, North Carolina, more than forty years ago. There I met my dear brother Stephen, and there I heard him speak. It was not merely the Word of God I heard; I heard the Lord speak.
Then I got in because his pal was Lance Lambert. I got in with him as well, and it was my undoing. It was the beginning of the end. I left the pastorate. I tore up my ordination. I stopped preaching for a while.
There was just so much wrong with my ambitions and things, but I saw something so beautiful in the church. When I have a chance to get together with brothers like you, I touch something that is so precious.
I guess we all know the song and say it so much:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brethren to dwell together in unity!
It is such a precious thing.
During my era as a professional pastor, we had a lot of pastors’ meetings. You got together with other pastors, but it was always about who could outdo whom: who had more people coming, who had more buses bringing people to Sunday school. It was always that kind of thing. It was always ambition.
It is so wonderful to hear brothers who say, “You know what? Here I was a pastor, and I did not have my target right. It was not Christ-centered. It was something else-centered—Bible-centered, all kinds of things—but not Christ-centered.” What a novel thought. Should that not be the thinking of everyone in the church?
So that is why it is so precious for us to get together like this and spend some time together.
I come to you tonight, and I use this passage of David’s consecration because, to me, it represents very simply a picture of our present situation. It bears a timestamp.
I think everything we have to do from here on out has to bear a timestamp. That is to say: What time is it? In all of our doings, in all of our praying, the first matter is time.
You know, part of the reason David’s kingdom came together was that the sons of Issachar understood the times. Practically speaking, what that meant was that the sons of Issachar took the ten tribes in the north and said, “Listen, it is time for us to join with David and Judah at Hebron and make David king over the whole kingdom.” They sensed that was the timing.
In all of our ministry, there should be an overarching sense of knowing what time it is. What time is it in the kingdom? Are we in the kingdom time zone in all the things we do?
Of course, our brother gave his main burden, which we may say we have heard before: the Lord is coming at any moment. But his watch is set that way, and that is very much in the forefront of his thinking. Is our watch set that way?
What time is it? If we are going to give oversight and ministry in the church, what are we going to be able to do that brings in the King?
The story of David in 1 Chronicles 29 is a picture of David standing at a paradoxical time. He was at the end, and he was at the beginning.
I like that, because that is exactly where we are. We are at the end, because this was the last day recorded in David’s life. He went home to be with the Lord. This was his last offering.
Yet it was a beginning, because he had prepared the way for Solomon to build the house of God. We are living in the same kind of paradox. In all that we do, we must be watchful in prayer. We must be stewards who believe the Master is coming back at any moment.
Yet, at the same time, until the Lord comes, we need to be about His business in the beginning of new things. At the moment the Lord comes, in some of our assemblies a child will just have been born, and somebody will just have been saved.
So we find ourselves in this kingdom where we are at the end—the very end—and we are at the beginning, both at the same time. We need to live wisely in these days.
One time, somebody talked to Martin Luther and asked him about the Lord’s coming. This is what Martin Luther said:
“If I knew the world was to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.”
If I knew the Lord was coming back tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today. Now, there is a man who lived in both zones. He could get on his knees and say, “Maranatha, even so, come, Lord Jesus,” and then get up off his knees and deal with the Reformation church that was just forming.
He could deal with all the political things connected with the formation of the church. He could work at the end of time and still know that he was just starting a reform of the church by the power of the gospel. He lived in those two kingdoms.
We brothers need to live in both those kingdoms. The problem is that the things of this world tend to press us out of the kingdom time zone. We become too concerned with things. They weigh upon our souls.
Our vision tends to narrow, even as we serve the kingdom, until our responsibility—our precious chosen vessel that we are to be—instead of being a vocation before the Lord, becomes a duty. It becomes a list of things to be checked off.
How many of you have been in a brothers’ meeting where we had a list? There is usually one bean counter who has the list: “Okay, next. Now we have this problem—check. All right, what’s next? Next Sunday, who is going to speak? Check.”
Instead of bringing things before the Lord, we are checking them off and trying to get out of there as soon as possible because the ball game is on television at home.
We get into this time where we are living in this world, and we are tempted even to stop bearing the cross. Or perhaps, like Haggai, everybody is building their own houses, and the house of God is in ruins.
Standing in this place, as David did, he shares his last spiritual day with us, yet this is also a very new beginning. It comes to me in this way: we must serve in the last hour, but we must make preparations for the ongoing of the house of God.
In the story, David took the riches he had gained through victories in warfare and then added his own personal wealth. He piled it all in, showing that his heart was absolutely set for one thing: the house of God.
I know that you have busy jobs, family responsibilities, and many things. But if we come to consecrate our lives tonight, can we say in our hearts, “Lord, it is all for Your house”?
This was clearly David’s position. The testimony of his heart was purely devoted to the Lord. Yet, at the same time, just before he passed away, he could say one more thing: “I have prepared my son Solomon to complete the building. I have provided all these things so that he can build.”
There was a future sense of preparation—preparing Solomon for this whole thing. I simply want to apply this picture to us as servants and leaders in God’s house, as we find the standard to set in our consecration.
It is interesting when you look out over the group here. We have some pretty young people here, and we have some pretty old people here. There are old people who have been faithful for a long time, serving God through many difficult situations.
You know, it is tempting to be offended when you are serving the Lord, or to stop seeking the best and the highest in the Lord’s glory, because sometimes we get treated pretty rough.
Some of these people have fought all their lives for the testimony of the Lord. They have moved here and there. You know what the result of that is? Some have done that for a long time, and they have not gotten rich.
But they bear the treasure—the riches of Christ—within them. This is what I think the Lord wants us to lay down. As those who have been serving the Lord, we need to give our best.
The building of the house of God needs to be with gold, silver, and precious stones. We need that treasure of Christ which is borne in these earthen vessels of ours. It needs to be broken yet one more time, so that the building of the house of God can be done.
There are others here who are younger. Maybe they have not gone through that whole struggle for years as soldiers, but they have had set before them the riches of Christ. Thank God for older brethren who have brought to us and presented to us the riches of Christ.
Now, what are we going to do as we see the riches of Christ before us? Are we all in, in our consecration? As young as we may be, as inexperienced as we may be, are we willing to consecrate all that we have?
It is amazing how much more treasure there was among the princes and the youngest soldiers. You are surprised to see that they just about doubled the amount—all the booty David had. Suddenly the princes discovered that they had more than they thought they had.
But as David praised and worshiped God, he said, “God, it was all Yours. We had nothing. You gave us all, and now we give it all back to You because we have one heart for the house of God.”
All the other brothers opened up their pockets and said, “Amen. I am in on this too.” David was happy, the people were happy, and the Lord was happy, because this is really all He was wanting.
So whatever our age is—whether we are young or old, greatly experienced or whatever—may we consecrate ourselves with this purpose in our hearts: with whatever we have, to build the house of God.
Not only do we build by the riches of Christ that we have come to know, which the Holy Spirit is guarding within each one of us, but we also consecrate ourselves to preparing Solomons for the completing of the house of God. This is why I see this picture before us now.
We want to build the house of God with gold, silver, and precious stones until He comes. He may come tomorrow, but I hope I can lay out some gold tonight.
I hope the Lord finds us busy. Even after we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus,” I hope He finds us busy when He comes back—taking those things and preparing them for the house of God.
Of course, I know this bothers us because we are such poor and unprofitable servants. As we have heard in testimony today, I think this is a fact: the Lord does not choose the wise, the smartest, and the most gifted to lead. Many times, they have some other fire in their belly besides a fire for the Lord.
Some brothers have said, “We did not let the brother loose because we realized the damage that could happen if the character is not Christ-like.” How many times in the world are there gifted preachers and teachers whose character is flawed, and eventually the church gets offended?
I remember one time, years ago, back in the early seventies, I was out on Long Island. There was a whole bunch of kids who were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Some of them had gone off to a Christian college down in Louisiana, where Jimmy Swaggart had a university.
They were there at the time that our brother fell in sin. I do not know if you even know who that guy is. A long time ago, there was a television preacher who was unfaithful and was exposed.
I did not know much about what went on down there in Louisiana, but I saw the kids who came home from that college. Some reported that, the very night they learned of the tragedy in their leader’s life, some of the students had gone out into dissipation, rioting, drunkenness, and sexual immorality because they were so offended. They had believed in this man and had been so offended.
So the Lord is looking for people with character. He cannot always pick out the best, but can He pick out the faithful? This is what we want to be in these days.
It is not by might or by power, but by the Holy Spirit.
In this picture, we are not David laying down our treasure. Oh, no, no, no. Jesus laid the whole thing down for us. He is the One who spread those treasures before us.
By His grace, by His power, and by His mercy, He has allowed us to do things that, by our own natural ability, we never could do. He has built things and done things by the greatness of Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the Son of David who lays out all the treasure. We are simply those sitting there with our pockets full as well, with the riches that have come from knowing Christ—the riches of having rich fellowship, even as we have had today together in this time.
But do we have a single purpose: building His house, preparing a bride, and bringing in the kingdom? We have nothing of ourselves, but we have treasure in earthen vessels, and the Lord wants us to make an offering.
As we talk about doing things and being aware of timing, I want to make a few comments. It is always helpful to set our sense of timing in the Book of Revelation, where we see things at the very end.
These are the last days, and our lives and our ministry need to be according to what the Lord is speaking to the churches in the last days. We need to be adjusted so that we can hear what the Spirit is speaking to the churches.
As you know, as the Lord went over the various churches, He gave commendation where commendation was warranted, and He brought rebuke where repentance was necessary.
Historically, four of those seven churches are extant today: Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. The church in Thyatira is basically seen in the Orthodox tradition and Catholicism. Sardis, historically, was parallel to the Reformation. Philadelphia is seen in such things as the Brethren movement and the recovery found in the body of Christ in the nineteenth century. Then there is Laodicea.
I do not want to go anywhere near Thyatira as we talk tonight and set our timing and sense of what the Lord wants. Neither do I want to go to Laodicea, which to me is a church that has already totally lost its way.
I believe that, in some way, we have characteristics of Sardis and characteristics of Philadelphia. If I know the fellowships and those I have been among here, we fit in both of them, I believe. So I want to use those two churches for just a moment and let the Lord speak to us regarding our place.
Let us turn to Revelation 3:1. We will read a few verses from the church of Sardis. This Reformation church is not merely that; it is us as well, in principle.
Sardis had a name and a reputation for right doctrine, but the church was actually falling into a dead sleep. That is a problem today.
“And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars: I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.
“Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.”
“If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with Me in white: for they are worthy.”
We will stop there for the moment, because we hear our Lord’s assessment of the church in Sardis. We see that there is some small commendation there. The reputation they developed was because they were faithful to proclaim the gospel and the doctrines.
Historically, this was the time of the Reformation, when Luther, John Calvin, and others made clear tremendous doctrines hidden in the Word of God. They recovered these things and brought them into the light. It was a wonderful moment in the history of the church.
I have not been to many of the assemblies represented here, but I have been to many. I must say that I am very thankful that, in most of the assemblies I have visited, their understanding of God’s gospel and the doctrine of Christ is accurate and true. Praise God for that.
Once you get outside a rather small circle of churches in this world, you find so much that is extraneous to the Scriptures—unbiblical, heretical, and taking the saints in all kinds of directions, even as we heard our brother share this afternoon about the Toronto Blessing and such things.
But praise God, when I come into your midst, I do not feel uncomfortable doctrinally. I feel that we understand that Christ is the center of things. His precious blood and His redemption, His resurrection and His second coming—these things are clear among us.
I think it was clear among the Sardisians as well. But they had need to repent, because the church was losing its strength and was spiritually about to die.
The problem is that this is a responsibility of God’s servants. The saints are sheep. If they hear the Master’s voice, they respond with life. If they stop hearing the Master’s voice, they fall asleep.
When there is a church full of doctrine but about to die, the leadership and those in responsibility must be doing something wrong. We see it mentioned twice in these verses in Revelation 3: somebody is not watching.
Notice verse 2:
“Be watchful.”
And in verse 3:
“If therefore thou shalt not watch.”
The watchers are the overseers. That is our job: to be the eyes, to see what is going on, to be watchful. This church is dying, and it must be that these men in responsibility—the overseers—are not watching.
Here is Jesus, who says, “I am here with the seven Spirits of God. I am looking for watchers. I am not seeing watchers.” Watchers.
The fact of the matter is, just like the Reformation, if you know Lutheran history and such things, they taught doctrine, emphasized preaching the gospel, and emphasized the Word of God. But it shows that these things alone do not keep us in life.
If we preach and preach and preach, but we are not watching and watching and watching, the church can go into death. We can preach them to death.
Many churches in the larger denominational world—the Sardis churches—are preaching the gospel, and the churches are dead. Preaching does not keep the church alive. There must be something more.
Many here are in assemblies where a kid who is twelve years old could tell you what God’s eternal purpose is. That is strange, because I was a Baptist pastor and I could not tell you what it was. They know. They have vision. They see God’s eternal purpose. They can talk about body life and the second coming. Their minds are full, but sometimes their hearts are dead.
Can we have Christians with minds full of doctrine but hearts that are dead? Something is wrong there.
Why are the watchers not watching? There is a deeper reason. We see it in the phrase, “But thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments.” There were some whose garments had not been soiled, but most of the garments had been defiled by the world.
If I could say this, men who are workers and men who are in responsibility need something more important than preaching the Word of God: they need to be priests in the throne room of God.
The church needs overseers. Overseers represent the Head to the church. But if the head is not hearing from the Head, then the church does not hear the Lord’s voice, and spiritual problems take place.
As responsible brothers, we are to stand together corporately as priests and come out of the holiest place with an answer. Our dear brother Alex expressed a testimony of what is real with you. I hope you are not satisfied until all the brothers see clearly the way forward.
But the only way that happens is if brothers can get together before the Lord and find out what the Lord wants.
Now, why am I saying all that? Brothers, I am just going to be honest with you for a moment. You can kill me afterward.
We received almost a hundred questions when we asked for questions. Many of the questions showed such poor spiritual quality among leadership.
The questions were raised by people who were not finding answers from the Lord Himself. That is the only way we find the answers. We do not find answers by asking Brother Stephen. We do not find answers by finding spiritual wisdom or getting some book somewhere.
My brothers, our spiritual condition was exposed in those questions—all of our spiritual condition.
Sometimes, praise God, we get into such a problem, as Kenny shared today, that we are completely undone. We find ourselves, like Moses, on our faces before the Lord, and the Lord speaks to us.
But can I ask a question? Should overseers be those who merely react after problems have already come upon us? Is it possible to walk in such a way that, before the Lord, we are spiritually anticipating even things that would come upon us?
This takes a life in the holy of holies, a life of spiritual exercise.
Our brother Stephen, over the last five years—especially on the West Coast—has shared a number of messages on spiritual exercise. Perhaps they were also shared in Richmond, but most other places have not heard those messages.
Our spirit is the highest part of our being, and our spiritual life is the most important part of our body life. But if there is no spirit life at the top, then it is soul life in the body. Soul life has a shelf life, and eventually it fades away.
This is a very living problem because, as we have heard today, brothers in responsibility and leadership have disagreements with each other—sometimes strong disagreements. Some are very strong about doctrine, and some are very strong about experience. So on go the old boys. That is who we are.
But the Lord wants brothers who actually go in together humbly before Him, saying, “Now, Lord, we are just at an impasse. What do You want?”
That is how we all find the cross. We find out that our brother, whom we love and disagree vehemently with, has something that is right and something that needs adjusting. We find that we are right in a certain way, but we also need adjustment.
That adjustment is only found before the Lord. Should it be this way, or is it too much to ask, that five brothers should be able to go into the holy place and find the Lord’s way?
Or is it too much, so that suddenly we say, “Let’s make it just one brother who hears everything and tells us what to do. Moses, listen to God; we will do whatever you say”? Is that the Lord’s design?
No. He wants priests in the house of God. The saints need priests in the house of God.
When the spiritual reality of Christ and His headship has been touched, the assembly comes alive. There is life there. Then the Word of God is fruitful.
But without that fullness of the Holy Spirit in our assemblies, we are kidding ourselves if we think we can generate life by soulish, mental, intellectual discussions.
I felt for the brother from Minnesota. Can you imagine having a fellowship basically made up of professors, doctors, and scientists? Smart people are tough. They have such a soul life of intellectual independence that the Lord has to hit them with a two-by-four before they will accept that there may be another way.
As long as our fellowship is at the level of the soul, this is what happens. All I am trying to say is this: brothers, if anyone should be able to bring the saints up into the holy of holies so they can learn spiritual exercise, it should be us.
We need to exercise our spirit before the Lord in communion, in listening and waiting, and in obeying. These things sound simple, but most of our Christian lives are lived at the level of our understanding. We make decisions at the level of our understanding, and we do not go to the holy place. Eventually, it shows.
We just end up having made a whole lot of little compromises in the assembly, and we are dying. Please, brothers, I do not want to hear that your assembly is dead—that everybody knows everything about God’s eternal purpose and the second coming, and yet they are dead.
May it be that the church has found the holiest place, and there is life—even the simplest life, but life. This is what I believe the Lord is trying to say. He wants the people to hear the Shepherd’s voice.
The Lord is speaking to the church of Sardis because they are ready to die. In these last days, churches are boarding up all over the place. But those brothers who will go to the cross, pay the cost of really hearing the Lord, and come out in agreement together—this is precious.
We have heard testimony of how the Lord brought different ones into that kind of place. Let us not pretend that we are spiritual leaders if we just come together once a month and tick off a bunch of questions with wise answers.
“Let’s do that. Well, let’s do this.” And we have not prayed. We have not thought about it. Many of the questions we are ticking off have deeper things involved. We should simply be before the Lord on these matters.
Be watchful. Be overseers. Be shepherds over the life of the sheep.
Now let us do a little bit of Philadelphia. Let us read a few verses in Revelation 3:7 concerning the church of Philadelphia, because I want to use it as an illustration of preparation for the next generation and the raising up of Solomons to build the house.
“And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no one shall shut, and that shutteth, and no one openeth, saith this:
“I know thy works. Behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut, because thou hast a little power, and didst keep My word, and didst not deny My name.”
Here is a church that obviously knows it has little strength. There are not many wise, many noble, or many rich, but they are holding on to the Word of God, and they do not deny His name. The Lord, in His mercy, has opened a door of opportunity.
I do not know what the door of opportunity was for the church in Philadelphia. I do not know whether it was an inroad of the gospel among the Gentiles or some particular thing. But I know that, when that door was opened, the Philadelphians felt ill-equipped to go through it. The Lord was telling them, “Go through that door. Go through that door.”
Here is how I want to apply it. Some of your children I know, because you threw me into the lion’s den with them at WCCC, or even at the Richmond conference for years. I dealt with your children, and I just want to say that they are the most precious children I have ever been part of.
I did a lot of youth work in my younger days, but your children are precious. There is a door of opportunity there for them to build the house of God.
But it burdens my heart when I see so many of them leave the assembly. It is because they are given opportunity. You know that happens, right? They know so much of the Lord, although they do not think so. They think they are just normal until they go into some other situation.
Then they start saying a few things, and people think they are so valuable that they give them an open door—like our brother who was put into a ministry in InterVarsity. They take our best kids, but they give them an open door of opportunity.
I want us to have an open door of opportunity in our midst, in our assemblies, even though we are doing a work that can be despised because it is so small. No, no, no, no.
It was so precious to hear this Island testimony: they learned the hard way to embrace and love their children, and now there is something to be gained, and these graduate students are coming back. It is a wonderful testimony.
But it is such a burden when I see kids whom I saw growing up, getting saved and everything, and now they are off somewhere. They are off somewhere.
One thing I know is that they are probably busy as Christians. But I cannot say, in the sense we would say it, that they are building the house of God. They are doing a lot of stuff. Oh, that they could build the house of God.
Oh, that our young people—even that second generation—would not be lost. Is it not such a shame? It seems as if the first generation comes into something, and then the next generation goes bye-bye. These things should not be.
If we know we have little strength, hold on to the Word of God, and do not deny His name, we must find a way of embracing our young people and discipling them.
Let me put it this way: I want to see them become men and women who are responsible, who serve God, who know what time it is, and who love God’s house.
Even if they leave and move to Los Angeles because of a job or something like that, may it be that they leave with the burden for the house of God in their hearts and do not just get into some other idea of what Christians emphasize today.
Oh, for young people who want to see the house of God built. I think every fellowship here, even if you do not have many young people right now, has a door of opportunity if brothers will be faithful to give the riches of Christ—the riches of Christ.
Do not just say to the teenagers, “Wait until you grow up; then we will fellowship together.” It is now that they need to hear the truth of Christ, the riches of Christ, the vision of Christ, and see what the house of God is all about.
Put their hearts toward being the bride. They need to see it while they are young. If we just ignore them, they leave, and then we feel so badly and wish they had not gone.
I think we need to find ways—perhaps practical ways—to prepare our sons to build the house of God. Some of us, I do not know whether I include myself, are old soldiers.
Like David, you did a lot of fighting, a lot of gospel preaching, a lot of this and that. You moved to this country and started all over again. You went through a lot, learned a lot, paid a lot, and you have seen the Lord.
It is a shame to me when your own children do not want to go that way. But you know what? David was a fighter. God said, “I am sorry, you cannot be the builder.”
So David took his son, Solomon. You know the beginning of the Book of Proverbs, where it says, “My son, my son, my son”—those are not merely Solomon’s words. Those are David’s words ringing in Solomon’s heart when he was a kid.
All that wisdom came because David invested his life in Solomon and prepared him to build the house of God.
I think there is still a way to redeem this in our fellowships and assemblies. We need to be aware of young people who show promise, who have a heart, and help them find out how to be faithful and how to serve.
They need to serve out of character, not just be released into a bunch of busyness. We need to develop the character of Christ in them and help them understand the way of the cross.
These things would produce, I believe, the house of God. For some of us, we are at the end, and at the same time, it is a very beginning. The house of God needs to be built. Are we preparing such a generation for such a thing?
Jesus went about Galilee for two years, and His disciples trailed along. But after two years, He stopped those disciples and sat down with them and talked to them for one whole year before He went to the cross, because He wanted men who could build the house of God.
I have always appreciated our dear brother Stephen. I hear stories from fifty years ago of how he was building young people to serve the Lord in New York, and even now in Richmond, he is still building, seeing Solomons raised up.
Would it not be precious if we had Solomons with wisdom and character, who could build this house of God, and the Lord could come back?
There is a verse—you know how sometimes a little verse gets you and stays with you a long time? There is a verse in Acts 20. It is one of those by-the-way kinds of things, but it really spoke to me about this matter: am I helping younger ones be raised up?
Acts 20:4 simply mentions Paul starting to head out from Ephesus:
“And there accompanied him Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.”
There is a list of seven young men whom Paul was training, all the while he was working. There were more; they are just not included in this list.
Paul was in Ephesus for three years. While he was there, he was not only preaching the gospel in the school of Tyrannus, fellowshipping in Priscilla and Aquila’s house, preaching the kingdom of God, and ministering personally—he was also taking these young men, raising them up, training them, teaching them Christ, teaching them the cross, teaching them humility, and teaching them what it means to live by grace which is sufficient.
After three years, he left with these seven men, who became servants of God as they went from place to place, many of them back to their own hometowns.
I wonder, if the Lord tarries, whether we will have prepared seven Solomons in our church who can go on when we give away our riches. I believe this is a blessed opportunity for us.
We need to understand that we are in the Book of Revelation. We are not merely reading it; we are in it. These are the last days.
Because these are the last days, our young and old have to be trained in two unique ministries, if I could put it that way.
Number one: how to become an overcomer. You notice that in the Book of Revelation it does not say, “Now, we need some more elders, some more deacons, or some more apostles.” It says, “You know what we need in this last hour? Overcomers.”
We need brothers and sisters who have learned and been encouraged to be faithful, to bear the cross, to endure suffering, and to hold on to the testimony of Jesus through difficult times.
In these last days, this is the kind of person the Lord wants raised up: the overcomer, those who are able and willing to pay the price and stand for the Lord.
Secondly, it is very interesting: the Lord has to have angels in His churches. Now, who are those angels? Again, it does not say they are pastors, teachers, or elders. Maybe they were, maybe they were not.
But they were people who could not only hear what the Lord was saying but convey the message to the church. There need to be brothers and sisters with such a heart that they know what the Lord is saying, just like the angels who communicated the messages of Jesus to the assemblies when they gathered together.
We are at the end, and we are at the beginning. In light of that, I want to share one more verse and mention a few things. In Isaiah 66:8, there is this wonderful prophecy right at the end of Isaiah:
“Who hath heard such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.”
I wonder how close we are to the Lord coming back for His church. The passage says, “Who has ever heard of such a thing? Can something like that happen in one day?” When we look around, we say, “No, it cannot.”
But you know what? If our hearts are set like David and those princes, and we say, “Lord, accept the consecration as we give the riches of Christ to build the house of God. Accept this. Understand our hearts,” perhaps that may be the last thing the Lord is looking for before He comes back.
How soon He can complete the job—it is just incredible for us to believe.
So, here is what I want to suggest. I want to suggest that we pray about a few things tonight before we go.
First, I wonder whether we could place ourselves on the altar—not as elders, workers, or servants, but as those who have been given by Christ gold, silver, and precious stones.
Could we consecrate ourselves to building the house of God with our best—with gold, silver, and precious stones, not wood, hay, and stubble? But this involves a priesthood in the holy place. This involves overseers who are watching and careful, consecrating ourselves.
Second, I would like for us to pray for our wives: that, as we place them on the altar, they might be understanding of us and our weaknesses, continue to be helpmeets to us, and help us minister.
Third, I wonder whether we could pray for our children and young people, and those who are among us now. This is our opportunity, that we might be able to prepare Solomons from among those young people to build the house of God.
Finally, we could pray one more thing regarding ourselves. It is a hard thing to do in a way, but as we come before the great Shepherd of the flock, let us lay down all pride of position or status among men.
Let us be like David, with a heart fully for the house of God—a man who received much, gave much, and whose heart was steadfast toward the Lord.
This day, the riches of the Lord have been placed at our feet. Does it inspire us to lay down the treasure that is in our earthen vessel, to allow ourselves to be broken, and to give the best?
I cannot help but believe that if we give of our best to our young people, Solomons will be raised up. If we can give them gold, silver, and precious stones, so that they can see, handle, and touch the Christ we have come to know, surely some will develop that hunger to be overcomers and wise men who can finish the work we have begun.
This is our prayer as we come together. This is not only a time for us to learn lessons; it is also a time of consecration. May the Lord help us as we come before Him and give our offerings tonight.